Saved

"Saved" - almost finished

Here the piece is almost finished. I left spaces of light to show through from the background. After living with it for a while, and talking to some trusted friends, I painted in some more darks as the overall tone is too 'mid tone' with enough light spots. I haven't taken a photo since adding those darker bits as it had to be rushed to be hung in the show. I made it about 5 minutes before the Judge arrived!

I have learnt an enormous amount from this exercise. I am very excited about starting a new piece but cannot yet. I have a tryptich of quilts to be quilted first. That will be my Easter project - hopefully to finish that project.

"Saved" - details

Here is a detailed picture. The whole piece was inspired by a beautiful mossy log in the forest beside the Gordon River in Tasmania. This is my interpretation of the mossy log. I couched loops, and more loops of chenille wool and then snipped them to form the moss. This was stitched over the machine embroidered 'log' that was rows of decorative stitches stitched on to soluble stabiliser. I left all the loose threads.

Canvas in progress

It's Easter and as I live in Roma in Queensland, Australia, that means that it is Easter in the Country. This is our town's annual festival and the town sees an influx of thousands of people for the weekend. Some events include a street parade, cabarets, antiques and collectible fair, night rodeo, open gardens, gospel concert, speedway, mud derby and most important of all, the Easter Art Exhibition. Last year I was Convenor for the Art Exhibition and it was therefore my role to invite Guest Artists. I invited five of Australia's leading Textile Artists to display some of their works. We displayed 19 quilts of a wide variety of styles and interpretations shown with the 320 paintings in the Exhibition. It was a great opportunity for our community and also the visitors to the town to see and learn to appreciate fabric work as Art and it was my wish to move the idea of textiles being part of the mainstream art world forward a little. We had some interesting comments and many people for whom it was a whole new world.

Now it is a year on and I am delighted to say that there has been a visible impact. In the Open Section of the competition, Any Subject, Any Medium, we have had 7 entries of Textile Art. This includes four quilts and two pieces that involve a mixture of painting and stitching on fabric and canvas. It is great to see even this small impact and hopefully it will elicit even more entries next year and a further move in to the mainstream of Art in Roma (at the least).

And now back to my piece pictured above. Some time ago I began working on this canvas. I took the canvas off the frame and painted it with acrylic paint. I then collaged with fabric strips, overlocked thread strands and machine embroidered lace and more. Over that I began to embellish with machine stitching.

Being very inexperienced with this idea, I used monofilament thread in the bobbin as I didn't realise that I could cover it at the back. The result is that I found it very difficult to set just the right bobbin tension and consequently used only straight stitches when I would have loved to 'go to town' with some exciting zigzag, satin and decorative stitches. This was always meant to be a learning piece, to stretch my boundaries and experiment a little more and in that it has been successful. Next time........

As you can see above, it is pinned and at the beginning of some sort of composition - just beginning to place some stitches.

Lace and Painted Scrim

Stitching

I've been busy working on the quilting of the first of my triptych of quilts. This is some lace that I stitched for the second quilt. I have lots more to do but am taking a break. I also painted the scrim with acrylic paint. I may use it on the same quilt either under the lace or separately. I have to see how it looks and if it works.

I'm low on energy at the moment and struggling to do any art work. I'm also working on my History Unit for Uni and enjoying it. I would like more time for both my art and my study, but I have to work as well and it takes up so much time! Still, it does pay for my other interests.

Textures 3 

Textures 2 

Textures of Interest

Textures

Here are some photos that I love for their interesting and fascinating textures. I am currently fascinated by bamboo and seem to be taking a lot of photos of it. The sandstone wall is a welcome sign at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba. And the other photo is an interesting rock. These three pics give me reason to think - how could I portray these textures in fabric?